Overview

Requirements for a party under a commercial contract to seek the consent of another party before taking a certain action are sometimes qualified by a condition that the other party's consent cannot be unreasonably withheld.

There is little guidance as to what constitutes unreasonable withholding of consent in a commercial context. However, a recent English law case Porton Capital Technology Funds and others v 3M Holdings Ltd and another has confirmed that the principles developed in landlord and tenant disputes concerning this phrase may be applied in commercial cases.

In this briefing, Norton Rose outline when it is reasonable to withhold consent under a commercial contract and how these principles were applied to the Porton case.

Click 'View Briefing' to read on.